One Last Nick Cage Movie: Matchstick Men (2003)

For the longest time I had a particular Nicolas Cage movie in the back of my head, and it was this mystery movie that I originally thought would be Adaptation, but that turned out to be a different film. Finally I found out that the movie I had been thinking of all this time was Matchstick Men. I always remembered seeing a trailer of Cage having all these nervous ticks and twitches, and trying to be a con artist at the same time. I finally found it, and so I decided to watch that instead of a dusty old drama, because dammit, I can do whatever I want, and I've wanted to see this movie for a loooong time. Hit the jump to find my thoughts on this long anticipated movie of mine.


As briefly alluded to, Nicolas Cage plays a con artist named Roy Waller. He's not just any con artist though, he's one of the best, despite being obsessive compulsive and suffering from several fears of the outdoors and dirt. When he runs out of his medications, he finds out his doctor has left town, and so he has no choice but to start seeing a "shrink" who can approve him for more pills. Through talking with Dr. Klein, he gets put in contact with his estranged daughter, played by Alison Lohman, whom he has never met. Things start getting crazy when a big scam he is trying to run with his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) suddenly becomes extra complicated now that he is trying to take care of his daughter.

Roy Waller with his daughter Angela

The absolute benefit of having a character who has tons of weird little ticks and kooky things, is that it allows Cage free reign on what the character can say or do for the entire course of the film. This works to the movie's advantage several times and also lets the Roy Waller character really come to life through Nicolas Cage's far over the top style that he is so famous for. Long story short, I thought Roy Wallace was awesome and one of Cage's best characters.

As for the other actors, I thought Alison Lohman, who plays Roy's daughter Angela, was also really good. She actually cries a lot in this movie, but she really doesn't go much beyond crying, or being super happy. In both cases her cuteness pulls at your heartstrings just as it does to Roy as he tries to become a good father almost overnight. One thing I was kind of surprised about though, was how easily Roy gets used to having a teenage girl around his house, when he is very much obsessed with his house being spotless and completely in order. Then again, that does also play into the story a bit with how he starts getting better.

Don't get on his bad side when he doesn't have his meds!

I thought the story was quite good, although I had a few sneaking suspicions of what might happen at the end, and while I didn't nail it perfectly, I'd like to think I got pretty close. Even so, I thought it had a good ending. I really liked a lot of the characters, and the acting was quite good too. Nick Cage obviously steals the show with his unique brand of acting, and that's exactly what I wanted to see this movie for. So really, I got almost exactly what I came here for. The only thing is that the burst of insanity you see in the picture above only happens that one time, and the rest of the time he just acts like a dude with a bunch of twitches.

I think I would recommend this movie to my friends, but maybe only to those who like Nick Cage like I do. He's just a fun actor, and I'm really happy to have finally found this movie and watched it as my last Nicolas Cage film of the year.